Work is now under way at the Central Street CTA station which will cause northbound trains to skip the stop on Monday, May 2, and southbound trains to do the same on Tuesday, May 3.
Construction crews were at the station Monday morning, doing preparatory work for replacing the main staircase later this summer.
That means on Monday, anyone who wants to detrain at Central Street going northbound will have to go all the way to Linden, and then take a southbound train back to Central.
On Tuesday, the process is reversed. Southbound passengers from Linden will have to get off the train at Noyes, and then take a northbound train back to Central.
However, you don’t have to worry about the “go north to go south, go south to go north” during rush hours on either day. The construction is expected to take place only between 9 a.m and 3 p.m., with normal service in both directions during the times with the highest ridership.
The Central Street staircase replacement this summer is not part of the larger Red/Purple Modernization (RPM) plan, a multi-year, $2.1 biilion construction and renovation program working its way north from Chicago.
The “flyover” bridge near Belmont, carrying some tracks over others and thus speeding up certain trains, is already in use. Reconstruction of several Red line stations in Chicago is currently under way as well.
While improvements on the Purple line portion in Evanston are also part of the RPM project, there is no timetable yet for when they may happen, and no funding source identified, so that work may be a number of years away.
My question and concerns about the Evanston Purple line stops in Evanston. Why haven’t they updated the Central and Main street stops to be handicap accessible like they have done at the Davis station. Especially with Central Street being right next to the Evanston Northshore Hospital and medical buildings at the Central Street stop. A lot of people utilizes both the Hospital along with Northshore Hospital Clinic on Ridge and Central that is handicap as well as myself. The only bus stop doesn’t run after a certain time. The CTA has renovated the complete brown line stops having all handicap accessible having elevators
Great question and it makes such sense to prioritize accessibility by the hospital and medical offices buildings especially.